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Imagination

The other night, little sister came proudly into the kitchen, placed her foot upon the table and asked me, "Mommy do you know what this is?"
I paused, as if it was a trick question....thought about reminding her of proper table manners and then said,
"Um....it looks like a purple flower you drew on your foot with marker."
After a long sigh, she replied, "No Mommy, it is my IMAGINATION!"

That was it. A trick question indeed and with it she captivated me. That simple word has been floating around in my head ever since. For many of us, our imaginations have long since gone silent. We can't remember what it was like at 3 1/2 to make up stories, and songs, or dare to dream. We have long since silenced the stick ponies that were ridden down the hardwood hallways clomping all the way.

Our days and nights become synonymous with the old "Time to make the doughnuts" commercial. We feel the drudgery, we hear the background music to "Groundhog Day" playing ever so quietly in our ears. The bedtime routine goes from lovingly tucking in our children to a deliberate game of Whack-a-mole. A game that is nor loving and thrice as exhausting.

But I truly believe that for us, for adults, it is these little people, who we need even more than they need us. Yes, yes they need us to help them survive the physical world. We must protect them, nourish them, and keep them from cracking their heads open from jumping off the top bunk. Or the couch. Or scaling the kitchen counter for what we thought was cleverly hidden "GOOD" Halloween candy.

But without my children, I would fall into a dark place in which the light of imagination just wouldn't remember to flicker, let alone glow. I would forget to look at cicada shells or cloud formations. The little things would slip away like riding a bike for the first time, or asking how to spell c-a-t, or having reading actually 'click' for the first time.

The things that we do everyday with no thought, would cease to be important. But they are. For my kiddos, these are the building blocks to their imaginations. It is the foundation of their life stories. Stories I am so glad I am in and hope I can continue to be for many more chapters.

They remind me of what it means to be naive, innocent, and pure. Something that is the essence of childhood, and that I want so desperately to protect for them.

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